 Tom Florio |
Former Condé Nast senior vice president and publishing director Tom Florio is getting back into the magazine business by acquiring pop culture title PAPER Magazine. Together with XRM Media and PAPER CCO Drew Elliott, Florio has formed ENTech Media Group, which has signed an agreement to purchase the magazine from PAPER Communications co-founders Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits. Plans are for the magazine to scale down its print presence while beefing up its digital offerings. "We will build on their digital and native content, social architecture and video,” said Florio. “In 2018, the magazine will go quarterly with an increased distribution in bookstores and single copies." PAPER isn’t exactly a stranger to incorporating digital communications into its game plan, however. In 2014, the magazine debuted its “Break The Internet” issue with a cover shot of a scantily clad Kim Kardshian that generated more than 70 million monthly unique visitors to Papermag.com
 Jarl Mohn |
The sexual harassment scandal at NPR that provoked the resignation of the radio network’s former head of news, Michael Orsekes, may be having some subsidiary effects. In a letter to NPR staff sent out on Tuesday, CEO Jarl Mohn announced that he would be taking a medical leave of at least a month to address a “dangerous level” of hypertension. He suffered a ruptured aorta in March. Mohn has come under fire for what some see as foot-dragging in response to the charges brought against Oreskes. “In retrospect,” he said in the letter, “I did not see the bigger pattern of poor judgment and unacceptable behavior.” In addition to the harassment complaints, that behavior included $1800 in invalid expenses, for which Mohn said Oreskes has reimbursed NPR. While Mohn is out on medical leave, NPR COO Loren Mayor will be filling in for him.
 Serena Williams |
Oath—the digital arm of Verizon that includes AOL, Yahoo! and the Huffington Post—has named Serena Williams the founding chairman of its board of advisors. Williams will lead a celebrity-studded group that includes Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, fashion designer Zac Posen and recording artists Chuck D and Ciara. The board of advisors will share the expertise they have gained from building their own brands with Oath leadership, as well as having access to the brands that operate under the Oath umbrella. They will also work with Oath’s philanthropic and social impact arm, Oath for Good, providing financial and volunteer contributions to the cause of their choice. Oath CEO Tim Armstrong says that the board “represents the leadership, creativity, work ethic, and philanthropy we aspire to as a company and they will help us make Oath a company unlike any other.”
Michael Kaminer, who was responsible for the Observer’s “Power List” for the past 13 years, has cut ties with the publication... The New York Times Company continues the march toward its goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is providing more than $6 million in funding to eight organizations working to address the challenges local news and information environments face along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and the Daily Caller are holding back from signing Pete Hegseth’s edict restricting press access in the Pentagon... CBS News sees the first executive departure of the Bari Weiss era as head of standards and practices Claudia Milne exits... Indiana University shuts down the print version of The Indiana Daily Student.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
CBS News is set to hand over its reins to The Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss as Paramount acquires her site for $155M... C-SPAN comes on board as an official media partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... A new Gallup survey says that the level of trust that US audiences have in the media has hit a new low.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has named Kenneth Weinstein, former head of the conservative Hudson Institute, as ombudsman for CBS News.
